Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 - April 12, 1945), often
referred to as FDR, was the 32nd (1933 - 1945) President of the United
States. He was elected to an unprecedented four terms of office - the only
U.S. president elected more than twice, and part of the reason the United
States Constitution was amended to limit presidents to 2 full terms (8
years). His main contributions were the instituting of major economic and
social assistance programs in response to the Great Depression, leading
the country through a successful involvement in World War II, and the formation
of the United Nations.

Biography

He was born on January 30 , 1882 in Hyde Park, New York , and died on April
12 , 1945 in Warm Springs, Georgia of a cerebral hemorrhage , leaving the
famous Unfinished Portrait . He suffered from polio at the age of 39, which
left him with severe difficulty in moving his legs. He often used a wheelchair
, but took efforts to hide this disability throughout his life. In fact,
there are only two known photographs of Roosevelt in his wheelchair. When
a statue of Roosevelt sitting in a wheelchair was commissioned in Washington,
DC in 2001 , some criticized this as unnecessary political correctness
.

From the age of one, through until 1936 , Roosevelt spent his summers
at Campobello Island, New Brunswick but because of his worsening polio,
in later years he had to spend much of his time in Warm Springs, whose
namesake warm springs provided him and others relief from their symptoms
, and where he built the Little White House , now a Georgia state historic
site. He also created the town's Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute
for Rehabilitation, which continues to help others with disabilities to
this day.

He graduated from Ivy League Harvard University in 1904 , and from Ivy
League Columbia Law School with a J.D. in 1908 before taking a job with
a prestigious Wall Street firm. On St. Patrick's Day , 1905 , he married
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt , a distant cousin, who was the favorite niece of
Theodore Roosevelt , his fifth cousin. They would have six children:

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt May 3 , 1906 - December 1 , 1975

James Roosevelt , December 23 , 1907 - August 13 , 1991

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. , March 18 , 1909 - November 1 , 1909

Elliott Roosevelt , September 23 , 1910 - October 27 , 1990

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. , August 17 , 1914 - August 17 , 1988

John Aspinwall Roosevelt , March 13 , 1916 - April 27 , 1981

Government Positions include: Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1913 - 1920
; Governor of New York, 1929 - 1933 . In the 1920 election Roosevelt was
a candidate for Vice-President of the United States on the Democratic ticket
with James M. Cox .

Roosevelt's Presidential campaign in 1932 saw the New York governor
committing himself to battling the Great Depression , promoting a platform
with "Three R's - relief, recovery and reform." He coined the term " New
Deal " when he stated: "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for
the American people." On February 15 , 1933 after his victory in the 1932
election , President-elect Roosevelt was nearly assassinated in Miami,
Florida (the assassin did manage to kill Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton
J. Cermak ). In reference to the Great Depression, Roosevelt proclaimed
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" in his inauguration speech
on ( March 4 , 1933 ). Roosevelt's first weeks in office were called The
Hundred Days, as during the first part of his administration he authored
and approved a flurry of Congressional acts to institute immediate change
and keep the nation's economy from destabilizing. He insituted a four-day
"banking holiday" two days after he took office: a four-day period in which
all banks in the country closed, allowing the institutions a brief period
to recover and reorganize. During this time of crisis Roosevelt addressed
the nation for the first time as President on March 12 , 1933 in the first
of many " Fireside Chats ."

Of the various reform programs initiated by the Roosevelt administration,
the most far-reaching and influential was the institution of the Social
Security system, a form of welfare that was meant to provide support for
low-income and elderly citizens.

In 1935 - 1936 , the Supreme Court , which was dominated by conservatives
with a narrow view of the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution,
the basis of much New Deal legislation, struck down eight of FDR's New
Deal programs. In response Roosevelt submitted to Congress in February
of 1937 a plan for "judicial reform," which proposed adding a justice for
every justice over the age of 70 who refused to retire, up to a maximum
of 15 total. This came to be known as his attempt to "pack" the Court.
Though the plan failed in Congress, as a threat to the Court it may have
had its desired effect. In a move cynically referred to as "the switch
in time that saved nine," one of the conservative justices inexplicably
shifted his vote in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish , changing the ideological
balance of the Court. It wasn't long before time allowed Roosevelt to further
have his way on the bench, as vacancies allowed Roosevelt to eventually
fill all nine seats with his appointments--the most of any presidency except
George Washington 's.

In 1937 , Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to be inaugurated
on January 20th , following adoption of the Twentieth Amendment to the
United States Constitution . Prior to this, presidents had been sworn into
office on March 4th .

Campaigning for re-election in 1940 against Wendell L. Willkie , Roosevelt
said that he would not send American boys to fight in foreign wars. However,
in 1941 the conflicting interests of Japan and the United States in Asia
and the Pacific , especially in China , resulted in a breakdown of diplomatic
relations to the point where war seemed inevitable (see entry for Hull
note ). Some have suggested Roosevelt had prior knowledge of the December
7 , 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and welcomed it as a way to get
the U.S. into World War II . Others point out, that while U.S. code-breakers
had broken Japanese codes in Washington, D.C. and knew something was about
to happen, communication delays prevented the messages from getting to
Pearl Harbor until 4 hours after the attack.

On May 18 , 1942 , Roosevelt wrote a private letter to William Lyon
Mackenzie King , Prime Minister of Canada, in which he discusses that the
USA and Canada agree on an unwritten plan aiming to disperse French-Canadians
in order to assimilate them more quickly.

On January 14 , 1943 Roosevelt became the first President of the United
States to travel via airplane while in office with his flight from Miami,
Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War
II . The meeting was concluded on January 24 .

In hindsight, perhaps the most controversial decision Roosevelt made
was Executive Order 9066 which resulted in the internment in concentration
camps of 110,000 Japanese nationals and American citizens of Japanese descent
on the West Coast. Considered a major violation of civil liberties , it
was even opposed at the time by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover , Eleanor
Roosevelt as well as many other groups. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality
of the Executive Order. Others have criticised him for failing to do anything
to disrupt the Nazi operations in perpetrating the Holocaust despite having
intelligence of the atrocity.

Some have said of all the American Presidents of the 20th century ,
that he was the most loved and most hated. He was so well known, he was
referred to by his initials, FDR. Historians have often cited him as one
of the three United States Presidents whose influence and leadership set
a standard for greatness, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln
.

Roosevelt was the first President to regularly address the American
public through the medium of radio . He instituted a tradition of weekly
radio speeches, which he called "fireside chats." These "chats" gave him
the opportunity to take his opinions to the American people, and they often
bolstered his popularity as he campaigned for various changes. During World
War II the fireside chats were seen as important morale boosters for Americans
at home.

One speech he is famous for delivering was his State of the Union Address
in 1941. This speech is also known as the Four Freedoms Speech. His address
to Congress and the nation on December 8 , 1941 following the attack on
Pearl Harbor entered history with the phrase, "December Seventh, 1941 -
a date which will live in infamy."

He was elected to an unprecedented fourth term on November 7 , 1944
, beating Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey . However, during the painting
of his portrait, he died of a brain hemorrhage on April 12 , 1945 and was
succeeded by his vice president Harry S. Truman . In 1951 the Twenty-second
Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed, which limited all
presidents from that point forward to two terms (this was previously just
a custom that was established by George Washington and followed by every
president up to Roosevelt).